A word on the Playin': 32 minutes long - there are three major "themes" within the Main Ten - the first two are beautifully steady jazz jams interspersed with spacey dissolves and reconstructive alignments; the third such jam takes much longer to resolve itself but eventually levels out - this is one for the books, kids.

2nd set - The largely negative-space, sublime Seastones goes into a Jam and then melts right down again: the entire thing is something like 49-50 minutes long before resolving itself into Wharf Rat. To rate something like this with stars seems pointless - it is an exercise of musical prowess and adventure - now, listening to the entire 49+ minutes here is dedication, surely! But just before they go into a very unhurried, introspective Wharf Rat you can hear the incredibly obnoxious WInterland audience trying to "get something going" with a clap-clap-clap-clap rhythm, something the Dead seem to totally ignore, AND GOOD ON THEM! I don't know how the people who went to see the Dead in '74 Winterland dealt with that kind of nonsense.

As if to prove the point, the Dead then dissolve their jam yet AGAIN, and Jerry's gentle dialing over the frets here is an absolute and total treasure - he's completely comfortable here in doing what is required from the music, not "rock n roll"...Eyes rolls back into this very same exercise for the last few minutes. When the band clearly takes a break there is a long tuning pause while they contemplate the ashes, and I'll happily sit and listen through this tuning, it is a lesson to all those who insist the Dead play what THEY DEMAND, and rudely.

If you are able to get the complete Seastones > Jam > etc.... at the beginning of this 2nd set, do listen, especially if you haven't hit '74 for a while. It's easy to take the Wall of Sound years for granted if you're immersed in them day after day.

I know this isn't the FAQ section, but I am new to this, I normally use torrent downloads, but no site I use has the 10-16-74 to 10-20-74 dead shows, and I cannot figure out how in the world to download these files at all! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP

This is BS, maybe two songs from this show ere released - and they are not part of the GD Moviue, they were bonus features. It is stupid we cannot stream this show because 98% of it was never commercially released!! And even if it was, who cares, this is the Dead we're talking about. Please fix this web site so we can stream this show, it has NOT been commercially relkeased in full.